2012 (Prison) Reading List

One week from today, after 10 long years, my brother will get another chance at being a productive member of society.  

This is the third year I've blogged the list of books I've sent him, and kinda like the third child, I've forgotten to keep track of them this time around. 

(Bad joke, although my brother is the third of three children...) The books pictured are the ones I've managed to remember. 

Ex-cons face great odds, of course, not usually having been rehabilitated in prison. There's few resources on the outside to keep them on task, and plenty of bad habits to pick up again.  

I know he now thinks about the consequences of his actions, and hope that will lead him to make better decisions.

And somehow, despite all the horrors he experienced on the inside, he's managed to grow up into a pretty decent man. 

There were a few years early on when I didn't think that possible, he was so broken and abused. 

Something weekly to help pass the time. 

And fortunately he'll come home to a family more prepared to help than we were when he first started on his spiral downward. 

Many ex-cons are not so lucky to have such support. 

Something grounding for the soul. 

Hey Lit Girl

Occasionally I am so content that the only thing I want to do on a Saturday night is read.

Playing the Hand You Were Dealt

If you've been devouring the news about the Sandusky trial like me, you may have noticed the warnings before some of the articles. Trigger warnings, they're called, to alert those of us who are sensitive and apt to relive trauma.

I take a deep breath with every disclaimer but I continue on, refusing to bury my head in the sand. Denial is the last way to make child sexual abuse (CSA) disappear.

My day job is pseudo-librarian in a hospital library. I dig through medical journals for research all day long. Recently I've reviewed some of the info on pedophilia, trying to understand why it happens, if it's biological or psychological. I haven't found any answers.

 

I keep getting distracted by the fact that CSA keeps being allowed to happen. Or as Tom Klein, the lawyer for Sandusky Victim #5, said in a recent report by my friend Emily Reddy, enabled. Children aren't protected or taught to be prepared. The best of parents have had their heads in the sand.

I worked at the public library for a year and one librarian mentioned that s/he stealthily placed a book for kids, on the topic of molestation, in the parenting section. I liked the thought of a parent serendipitously finding it there.

Meanwhile I both seek out & accidentally stumble across CSA stories in hopes of healing my wounded inner 7-year-old.
 

I don't care much for watching sports but after hearing about Mets knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey's abuse as a child, I found myself desperate to read his memoir. Although once I had the book in hand I couldn't face it. 

But yesterday, on the plane to Nashville, the town where R.A. was born and raised, I decided to venture in. Nothing like crying convulsively at 30,000 feet in the window seat, trying not to disturb my neighbor. Still, the man's honesty was uplifting.

And I calmed down. The clouds soothed me and I know I'm lucky to be where I am, in every aspect of my life. (I remind myself that) I'm a grown up now with the power to make smart choices and utilize resources when I need them. People care about me, and I love myself, which hasn't always been the case.

Inspirational bathroom reading at the Piranha Bar in Nashville

While I'd been avoiding Dickey's book, a few weeks ago I started reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.  Now there's a family more messed up than most. But Jeannette and her siblings took care of each other and were prepared for anything, even child predators, who the kids chased down the street with a machete.
 

Even early on they knew better than to be victims. We should all be so lucky to grow up with such wisdom.

The rest of us, however, have to keep our heads up & in the game, even if it means throwing one awkward knuckleball at a time.

World Book Night

Monday night is the first ever World Book Night in the U.S. The celebration began a year ago in the UK to "spread a love of reading and books."


Literary-lovin' volunteers have committed to picking up (free!) books this weekend and distributing them by Monday to adult readers in need of inspiring stories, like at the Alpha House, a licensed maternity home for new mothers & pregnant women in crisis. 


Locally the effort includes Inkwood Books' Carla Jimenez, who wrote in a recent email that she "was thrilled to be asked to serve on the committee selecting the titles," which includes some of my favorite novels ever:


The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie 
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz 
The Stand by Stephen King 
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 
and a bunch more. 


There's also nonfiction, like the so-very-awesome science/social justice story The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot 
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers 
Just Kids by Patti Smith 
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls 


The latter three sit on my own bookshelf but I have yet to make time for them. In the spirit of this wonderful celebration I'd be happy to pass them along. 

I don't think there's a better gift in the world than a book.

Don't Fear Twitter! (It's Fun!)

I'm a great fan of Twitter as a communications tool. Even though I've been active on it for a couple of years, I still haven't learned all its fancy uses. Of course the best way to learn is by doing. 

This weekend I did a rare (for me) live tweet, that is, I went to an event (in this case, a book discussion by Meika Loe), and took notes via Twitter. 

The great thing about technology is that one brilliant idea is built upon by another. There's a website called Storify where you can piece your (and other people's) tweets into a story. My Storify-ed version of Meika Loe's lecture is below. Enjoy!

Life Sans Cocoon

This Sunday at 2 p.m. Inkwood Books is hosting a discussion with Professor Meika Loe, a sociologist and author of the 2011 book Aging Our Way: Lessons for Living from 85 and Beyond.

“If nothing else," Meika said, "these elder stories defy what you expect from the very old.” 

One of the stories is about three widowed friends who live on their own. The ladies check in with each other every morning by phone to make sure all is well. On at least one occasion, one of the three didn't answer her phone. When the others went to see why, they found her on the floor.

We're a society that doesn't "think intergenerationally," Meika told earlier this week over the phone. She's 38 and the mother of a four-year-old, and said she was interested in the topic of aging because she "had great relationships with my grandparents, and have watched them struggle with aging without their spouses."

She says the more we know about these modern elders, who live longer and healthier than previous generations, the more we can prepare and help. And we all have to learn how to do this better because the 85+ set is the fastest growing age group in the U.S.

Not to mention it'll help us help ourselves if we’re fortunate enough to reach that age. Here's a few questions I asked Meika, edited for brevity.

Tampa Do-Gooder: What grade would America receive for our efforts to take care of our elders? 

Meika Loe: That's a tough question. We have Medicare and Medicaid in place to help, but beyond that it’s an informal crew of caregivers. It’s extremely expensive to have in-home care and aging in place. We have a ways to go. 

I’d give between a B-C. In my book, the elders are filling in their own gaps. And so are local nonprofits, county centers, etc. I’d also ask, ‘how are we caring for our communities in general?' This question isn’t always age specific. For example, are there sidewalks for strollers?

TDG: How are elders treated in other countries?

ML: In Brugge, Belgium certain cafés have colored flags specifically for people with dementia, so they don’t have to be watched all the time. It’s a community working together to respond, instead of investing in surveillance devices, they’re enabling the wandering.

We have a very age-segregated society here. Maybe not so much in Florida, but here in New York, it’s pretty rare [to see the frail elderly out at a café].

TDG: What feedback have you gotten from your students? 

ML: They’ve really enjoyed it. I’m teaching a class called “Sociology of the Life Course” and this is the first class to read the book. Part of the assignment is to connect with a local elder and do a life history interview. The students are juniors and seniors. They’re finding similarities in their own lives. Like, “Wow, now I have a sense that football is just one chapter in my life.” Or they’re taking their families for granted less.

There's a great interview with Meika on Access Minnesota, and you can check out her blog here.

Purist

10 years ago I was a senior in college, focused on videography and writing. I was thrilled, finally getting to be good at something, and sharing ideas that I thought mattered.

Though I sometimes regret not having gone to school in a bigger city, the smallness of my adopted home in Dover, Delaware allowed for great networking. I joined the Delaware State Writer's Group, which helped me practice my craft and meet other writers. 

One of these writers was Julianna Baggott, a poet, who had just published her first novel. It was, as a beloved Delawarian would later say, “A big f’n deal.”

In need of a subject for my senior thesis, I asked Julianna for a day of her life and she agreed. I followed her and her family for a day or two and produced the 13-minute video A Day in the Life of Julianna Baggott.

Throughout the year she invited me to other events and I helped bring her to my own college for a lecture. Right before her talk, I was informed that since she was my friend, I had to introduce her. It was my first foray into public speaking and I was insanely nervous. (I haven’t shut up in front of large groups since.)

Just before I left school, I was in a park in Dover. Preparing to move away and worried about my future, I watched a father and son play ball and wondered what their lives were like. My own nuclear family had imploded my last couple of years in school, so whenever I saw a seemingly happy family I was envious, mournful. I called Julianna and told her I wanted to write a short story about them. Her advice was not to gloss them over, rather, look for the dirt under their fingernails. I took her advice, and although I never did write that short story, I did end up in journalism for a while. 

Seven or eight years ago we both moved to Florida. Julianna & family moved to Tallahassee, where she is now an associate professor. Today is a big milestone for her, the release of Pure, her post-apocalyptic novel. 

In the decade since I've been stringing together a freelance career, she's been writing away, novels and kids books and young adult fiction. She tries and fails and doesn't give up. I'm proud of her. She's been an excellent role model for this anxious writer. 

2011 (Prison) Reading List

Last year I compiled the list of books I sent to my incarcerated younger brother. 

I liked Pelzer's healing attitude and his inspiring ability to move forward.

Having not spent a lot of time with him as an adult (he went in at 21 while I was living on the West Coast), it's great watching his literary tastes develop. 

All Ned Vizzini's books should be required reading for young men who've ever identified with Pearl Jam songs.

I send him several a month, or as many as I can afford. He's become quite the voracious reader. 

I tutored a high school freshman for a couple of months and delved into YA fiction for the first time in my own life. So many beautiful books, my whole world opened up, too.

When I started sporadically sending my brother books a few years ago, I had yet to become an avid reader/savvy county library employee.

I sent only a handful of do-gooder books & mags I was familiar with: To Kill A Mockingbird, Utne Reader and Yes! Magazine. 

This pick was inspired by a story I did for WMNF on USF's children's mental health research conference

Sadly my bro told me early on that he preferred Cosmo & Country Weekly, and was bored by anything journalism related. 

Sorry Mr. French, I tried.

Take another little piece of my heart now darling. 

The only book I've been able to find on the topic of reentry.With millions of imprisoned Americans, you'd think the free market would be teeming with this stuff. 

It reminded me of us as kids, when we'd play school. I'd lock him in my room until he finished the homework I assigned. (Yes, I feel very guilty about being one of the reasons he's locked away now.) 

And its sequel The Sea of Monsters

I'm happy to report that my pedagogic skills have dramatically improved since I was 8.  

And its sequel. He ate them up! Finally I succeeded in my effort to make him like journalism, or at least know its struggles.

Now I want to be sure he's engaged and entertained by what I send. He needs an escape as well as an education. 

And as always, many thanks to Inkwood Books for accommodating my need to do something in a situation where I otherwise have no power. 

Few other stores are willing to ship books out for me, as required by the FL department of corrections.

He La was my pick of the year, yet I can't believe he liked it! My bro said he paced himself to stop from reading too quickly because he enjoyed it so much.

I'd like to give him & Rebecca Skloot a big ole hug now. After nine long years away, 2012 will be the last (prison) reading list I'll have to compose. Let's hope & pray for no encore.

#FridayReads: Committed

As an impoverished writer, I'm the last person I buy books for (though they're my favorite presents to give).

But on my recent vacation I spent more on books, for myself and others, than on food. Don't let my waistline fool ya, I'm kind of a pig.

Because my travels were as much about break-up recovery as reconnecting with old friends, one of the books I bought for myself & devoured in flight was Elizabeth Gilbert's Committed.

To quell her own marriage fears, the author researched the history of marriage, and explored its place in Western society as well as other cultures, like the Vietnamese Hmong.

Liz asked and answered her own questions about the multi-millennial-old institution: Why do we humans have it, why do we still need and want it? Did the Christian Right invent it?

Most people I know do not have good relationship role models from their youths or in their lives now. How else are we to learn the right way to be happily married?

I think Committed is a great guide for those of us who may be scared but haven't given up, and want a manual for next time.

I found both flying solo & bad marriages to be lonely, so this sequel to Eat, Pray, Love helped with my journey(s).

Committed is a fine map for getting back on the horse. Even if you never had a horse, or had one a long time ago but forgot where you parked it.

My First Book(store) Tour

Who needs to publish a book in order to embark on a four city book(store) tour? Not me!

I didn't get to stop into all of my favorites, but I sure did fit a bunch into one week. And I even had a fan to greet me.

Here's Your Sign

Ah, vacation.

At American University

Politics & Prose

National Museum of Natural History

The Panic Virus

Science and media are two of my favorite topics. When done right, they can bring such good into the world. 

But evil (or at the very least, lazy) scientists and media makers sometimes produce sloppy if not dangerous work. 

Both fail miserably when they can't break down complex subjects and communicate the importance of these topics in our daily lives. Or if they make stuff up.


This week I interviewed journalist and science writer Seth Mnookin on his book The Panic Virus, which examines the massive fear bad (rejected!) science brought to vaccinations. Vaccines, by the way, are considered one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th Century (i.e. a major reason 30 is no longer considered old).

Mnookin is speaking on this topic Thursday, October 27th at the University of South Florida at noon at the Samuel Bell Auditorium in the College of Public Health.